Gatete, I like your description and analysis of ideas and actions promoted by those who do very little but make a lot noise without showing what and how they can do better.
We know that talk is cheap. Today, Africa needs more doers and a few who say nay at the right time and place with due recognition of what has been achieved under difficult circumstances.
When an African country has a good leader, the least citizens can do is to lift the domestic pressure and share the burden of leadership.
In this globalized world, to be a good leader requires more than getting national policies right. It requires finding good friends from around the world, establishing trust with them and securing their unwavering support; This takes a lot of the leaders, time and energy.
So, when we have issues with what we think is going wrong, we better have sound alternatives. Facilitating the piling of problems doesn’t help a nation. At the end of the day, ordinary men and women are interested in action that will affect every aspect of their lives. Empty promises and political expediency is a thing of the past. A good politician is one who can try to walk the talk with the people.
Having said that, I wouldn’t like to see the stifling of criticism in the interest of action. I believe both can go hand in hand if they are handled constructively. Blind faith is dangerous, but blind criticism can be distractive. The key is to demonstrate political maturity and agree on what is exactly needed in each country.
Without this, a country can be drifting from one political event to another without making real progress. Alas, Egypt is currently suffering from this malaise. This tells us that it is important to put in place mechanisms and institutions for building institutions that could facilitate the flourishing and development of democratic culture relevant to a given context. The world is globalized, but it doesn’t mean that there is a globalized and standardized formula for solving complex problems in different countries in exactly the same way.
Tilaye Nigussie is the Country Director of Concern Worldwide in Rwanda.
